Dressed in one of her extravagant looks, Luna Ki (Barcelona, 1998) receives the news from her father.
- Luna, they just called me, you have been shortlisted for Eurovision!
We are on the set of the EL MUNDO newsroom in mid-December. We have just finished an interview to which she arrives accompanied by her father, the businessman of Cuban origin Ginés Górriz -the man who undressed Albert Rivera on that famous poster-, and MNLO, her friend and her stylist.
The appointment is to talk about his career and his first album, which he will publish in 2022, although the Eurovision news will delay his plans somewhat. Undoubtedly, being in an event as high-profile as the Benidorm Fest is a platform to reach a larger audience and leave behind the controversy over sexual diversity that she had a few months ago for posing with a package.
A topic that she will have no problem talking about and that has not changed her position at all: from the waist down she is only wearing the controversial thong.
QUESTION - When and why did you start singing?
ANSWER - I have always sung, but in 2017 Lil Peep died of an overdose, who was my favorite artist and the only one I have tattooed. Then I understood that I wanted to sing to take over. I had a point from which to start, which was drug use among young people. I saw that it was a real problem and it worried me, so I thought I could do something similar but educate and raise awareness.
Q.- You have moved a lot in the underground world of Madrid, how has it influenced you when it comes to creating?
A.- In September 2018 I moved to Madrid to study Fashion and I was with many bohemian people. I also started to play at the Infierno nightclub, where the Pxxr Gvng people used to party. I rubbed shoulders with many artists and my house in Zurita became a very creative space, without parents, where there were no schedules, limits or rules. In all this situation, the artists asked me for the song 'burn my piti on my back', which I had on Soundcloud. When I saw that people who were dedicated to music were asking me to listen to mine, I began to visualize further and want to professionalize everything.
Q.- That song is September, with which you became known. How is it born?
A.- I had finished high school and I was going to move to Madrid in six days. I had my apartment, a new university, new classmates... It was the opportunity to start the life I wanted to have because for me the Baccalaureate and working in a candy store had been a way of trying to fit into society. With that illusion I made September and I recorded it with my mobile.
Q.- How has your family supported you in developing your creativity?
R.- . I don't think they made me an artist. I think I have been and, in fact, it has taken us years to realize it. I don't know what it would have been like to have the peace of mind knowing that I was going to do a project like this. But, of course, they have supported me a lot in my artistic disciplines: in the theater, in visual scenic arts, in ballet, in sports... And I am very grateful for that. The person who I feel has judged me the least in my family has been my grandmother Monica, who has always given importance to the creations she made. Although, obviously, there are sticks. For example, I think my parents wanted me to be an architect. In my family we are architects. I also have a great-grandfather who is a musician, a philosopher...
Q.- Where does your imagination come from? In your videos there are many references to the future or to Japanese culture
A.- When I was little, what inspired me the most were animals, nature. One of my favorite animals is the okapi, a cross between a zebra and a giraffe. But it is true that when I have my first computer in my hands everything changes and I say that's it, what they teach me at home or at school is not the limit. As a teenager I remember getting into forums that were super toxic. Now I think about it and I say how can it be that at the age of 13 I looked at forums of malnourished people. But hey, I've always really liked having access to information on the internet, seeing aesthetics, and I've sucked on everything.
Q.- Queer, Japanese, futuristic, sexual... These are some of the labels associated with you. Are you comfortable with them?
A.- At first I was labeled a lot as Japanese, otaku or kawaii and I loved it. But now, when I see myself creating my first album, I see that they do have something wrong. I think I have some labels that are conditioning me, they are conditioning what is expected of me. That's why I want this first album to help you get to know me.
Q.- If you were from another generation, would your proposal be understood?
A.- I think my proposal is vomiting. I mean, wow! It's very contemporary, but it depends. If I eat a lot of butterflies in my stomach one day and make a love song, I am one more person in the history of art. But yes, when I have done something more tacky it has been to react to something current.
Q.- And do you think it is 100% understood?
A.- No, I don't think it's ever fully understood. I haven't understood it either, although it doesn't worry me because there are times when I do. There are people who say that my lyrics are terrible, I don't know. What I know is that I do them like this for a reason. I feel that it is like a channel, like something divine comes to me and I channel it and express it. Sometimes I've tried to change a letter because I don't understand it or because I don't see the point, and I can't. I leave it because in the future I find it.
Q.- When creating, do you keep death in mind?
A.- I have grown up thinking that I wanted to die, with self-harm problems, which I no longer have, with income, and with suicide. I thought that the root of all this was that I did not want to live. And now I think the root is that I did want to live, but I was very afraid of not living fully or of dying. Now I can cry because I am a normal person and I suffer, but as I have suffered in my adolescence I have never suffered again. Just because something happened to you as a teenager is not less important. And now I am super clear that I want to help people who have suffered what I have. For example, one of my favorite songs is Good morning and there's a phrase that says: why fix myself if I'm not broken / eat me tota. The phrase comes from a notebook of mine from 2015, which is a year in which I was trying to take my own life, and now it is in my songs, people sing it and it has helped many to get ahead, without putting on makeup, without changing, accepting themselves.
Q.- And what about the sexual part, do you feel that being so explicit is controversial?
A.- I don't really like talking about gender, but it still seems surprising that women talk about their sexuality freely. I have always been very sexualized and that has been a problem. Yes, I talk a lot about sex, but as a fantasy almost because when you really meet me it's not that I'm a very erotic person or that I have sexual energy. It's my outlet because I really feel super self-conscious when it comes to having relationships.
Q.- Why do you say that you have always been sexualized a lot and that it has been a problem?
A.- Well, I have grown up being seen and treated by society as a woman. I'm tired of the comments on the street, of having to notify my friends, of being careful with what I wear... It's been many years being read as a woman and suffering bad experiences on the street. For example, I have been in Cuba and they have said things to me on the street and I have not been afraid, but in Spain I have not felt so safe.
Q.- No?
A.- No. I've had bad experiences.
Q.- What gender do you identify with now?
A.- I identify as a queer person. It is a label that gives visibility to diversity. Since I was little I have been like a magnet for fagots and different people and I believe that we are also the future. Obviously I think that gender should not exist. I think the world is made for straight and binary people and that's not all there is to it. In fact, there's so much more and we're starting to scream. So I'm queer, I'm gay, I'm lesbian, I'm trans, I'm non-binary, and I don't feel identified with any gender or any of the norms.
Q.- Not all readers may understand this
A.- Better.
Q.- Why?
A.- Something that I have always liked is teaching things to other generations. I believe that my parents have been able to learn a lot from me as I have grown and if one day I had children I would also imagine myself learning a lot. Many things are badly built, they have to be rebuilt and our generation is very much for the work. It is also true that our generation is a little piki with other things. Sometimes it seems that so much freedom has created many thoughts and, if you don't think alike, it's already wrong. That is an error.
Q.- In line with this, just a few months ago the trans community tried to cancel you for posing with a package on Pride Day
A.- Yes, I have found myself in a controversy as a result of carrying a package and it is something that I have done naturally both in my private and public life. I have not done it to offend anyone or for anyone other than myself. It seems to me that we are living in an era where, thanks to the internet, information goes super fast, but also everyone has a speaker to talk to. It seems good to me that there is freedom, it seems super good to me that there are a lot of opinions, what does not seem good to me is that we make enemies with those who do not think like us. I have always received criticism, but when you are in a race it is much more delicate because they can knock you down a lot of work.
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